Boardwalk Empire: Volume 2 - Music From The HBO Original Series CD

SKU ID #462320

$13.98

'Boardwalk Empire Volume 2: Music From The HBO® Original Series’ features all new recordings from a wide range of vocalists including Elvis Costello, Neko Case, Patti Smith, Liza Minnelli, Rufus Wainwright, Loudon Wainwright III, St. Vincent, David Johansen, Matt Berninger from The National and more, singing timeless standards and forgotten gems from the 1920s. With instrumentation recorded by Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks — the NYC jazz ensemble and Boardwalk Empire house band — the album also includes performances by cast members Stephen DeRosa (as song-and-dance man Eddie Cantor) and Margot Bingham (as a new character to be introduced this fall). Following up on their GRAMMY win for Volume 1, producer Stewart Lerman and Boardwalk Empire music supervisor Randall Poster have brought together a swinging, sauntering collection of big-band classics, Broadway dance tunes, sultry ballads and torch songs.

As a fan and player of 20s and 30s music, I am hard to please. However, the new renditions by contemporary artists give these venerable old tunes the freshness of hearing them for the first time. Authentic, unvarnished arrangements as played by Vince Giordano and the fabulous Nighthawks give each tune the edge it deserves. Are some of the lyrics politically correct? Not for this day and age, yet in their historical context they pack an extra punch. The superb sound quality has salvaged even the more obscure old songs out of the morass of old recording pop and hiss, so whether you're on the road or flopped on the living room couch, listening to Volume II is as bracing and invigorating as a belt from a hip flask.